New WWF file format raises paper-saving awareness

Hamburg, Germany: WWF has introduced a new file format to highlight the problems of unnecessary printing and ease pressure on the world’s forests.

“Think before you print - Save as WWF” is a plug-in that enables documents to be disseminated as pdf files that cannot be printed.

It joins the existing global WWF Think before you print initiative as one of a number of practical and educational consumer oriented measures to reduce market pressure on the world's forests.

The WWF format, launched yesterday by WWF Germany, advertising agency Jung von Matt and Dederichs Reinecke & Partner, is currently available from saveaswwf.com for both the Mac and Windows operating systems.

“About 13 million hectares of forest disappear each year, an area the size of Greece,” said the SaveasWWF partners at the Hamburg launch yesterday. Excessive paper consumption can therefore add unnecessary pressure to the already beleagured state of our planets remaining wild forests.

“Each tree that’s cut down means that another layer of environmental protection is lost."

So to encourage awareness about the use of paper, we’ve developed a new, green file format: WWF. A format that can’t be printed out. It allows the user to decide for themselves which of their documents don’t need printing - and save them as .WWF (dot wwf)

"Our client's positive response to this initiative is overwhelming" reports Dr Mischa Paterna, CEO of German business and environment consultancy Suncycle.

The Save as WWF and Think before you print initiatives sit with other WWF initiatives designed to to reduce excessive paper consumption.

Other key measures to reduce the environmental impact of paper include

maximising paper recycling,

supporting the choice of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) labelled papers, and

choosing papers with the lowest water and climate impact.

Under the banner of the Global Forest Trade Network, WWF also works globally with many companies engaged in timber and timber products and pulp and paper producers on increasing sustainability in the forest products sector.

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This is an updated article. Based on valuable reader feedback, we realized our original article didn't adequately explain the reasoning and intent behind the new file format. Many of the comments below refer to that original article, which can be found here. As always, we thank panda.org readers for taking the time to share their ideas and opinions.

The new '.WWF' document format hopes to raise people's awareness on the need to not waste paper.